Decree Blog

Tax in Oman is governed by a handful of separate laws, each covering a different kind of tax and each administered by the Tax Authority. Businesses pay tax on their profits under the Income Tax Law, spending is taxed through value-added tax and excise tax, payments abroad are subject to withholding tax, and from 2028 individuals will pay tax on their income under the new Personal Income Tax Law. This post walks through the five main taxes that apply in Oman, the law behind each of them, and what each one means for you.

Remote work is not new in Oman. The Labour Law issued by Royal Decree 53/2023 already recognised remote work, and employees have been working remotely in practice. Furthermore, Ministerial Decision 523/2023 regarding the governance of remote work provides specific rules on certain aspects of remote work that are not addressed in detail in the Labour Law itself. This blog post outlines the key provisions that govern remote work.

Overtime is one of the most common sources of dispute between employers and employees in Oman. The Labour Law promulgated by Royal Decree 53/2023 sets out exactly when a worker can be asked to work beyond normal hours, how much extra pay is owed, and the narrow circumstances in which consent isn’t required at all. Here’s what employers and employees both need to know.

Anyone who reads Omani legislation runs into two similar-sounding instruments: the royal decree and the royal order. Both are issued by the Sultan, but the Basic Statute of the State, in its current 2021 form, uses them for different purposes. The difference is not just naming convention.

The Basic Statute of the State protects both human and citizen rights. Although these two types of rights are connected, they apply to different groups, and this blog post will explain how and list some examples.

We are launching today Decree Graph—a new feature on Decree that shows the status of every law, royal decree, and ministerial decision on Decree and how it connects to other legislation.

Using the Decree Graph, you can now easily determine if the legislation you are currently reading is repealed or valid, and quickly locate regulations issued pursuant to the legislation in question.

When viewing any legislation page on Decree, a status label will now be displayed on the Ask Lex button located in the corner of the page. Clicking this label opens the new Graph tab, which explains the status of the item, provides a link to the consolidated version of the law where one is available, and lists all the connections of the item. Decree Graph is also available on Arabic Decree and in the document menu of the Decree app on iOS and Android.

Decree Graph is available to Decree members whose subscription bundle includes Lex AI. You can try it by logging into Decree and viewing any law, such as the Personal Data Protection Law.

The limited liability company (LLC) is the default vehicle for anyone starting a business in Oman, and for good reason, since the shareholders’ liability stops at the value of their shares. But that protection is not automatic. It comes from a body of rules in the Commercial Companies Law and its executive regulation. This post walks through what the law requires to set an LLC up, and what it requires to keep running one.

This is a guest blog post written by Nouf Al-Hoqani, Rayan Al-Hasni, Zahra Al-Balushi, and Zayd Al-Harrasi as part of their Decree Fellowship group project in July 2026.

Artificial intelligence has advanced significantly in recent years. AI systems can now generate text, compose music, and create images and other works. These advancements have also raised significant legal concerns, particularly regarding intellectual property rights. AI developers often use copyrighted materials to train AI models, raising the risk that these models will create counterfeit or derivative works belonging to other people. This issue has not yet been addressed under Omani law: there is no specific legal provision or regulation governing the relationship between AI and intellectual property. By contrast, jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union have already begun to grapple with the problem and to explore potential solutions. Oman should therefore begin addressing this issue, drawing on the experience of these jurisdictions to inform its own approach.